Little House On The Prairie was the epitome of wholesome TV in the ’70s, the heartwarming story of a pious 19th-century farmer and his loving family. Yet the TV set where it was made couldn’t have been more different, with tales of heavy drinking and “insane” parties on set.
Alison Arngrim, who played child bully Nellie Oleson on the series, opened up recently about the crew’s Mad Men-esque culture of always having cigarettes and alcohol around, despite many young actors being in the vicinity.
“They came from an era where everybody smoked and everybody drank, like all the time,” reveals the actress, 64, adding that the crew “went through a couple of cases” of beer every day.
The show’s star Michael Landon, who played Charles “Pa” Ingalls, was known to be a heavy drinker and smoker, and Alison claims he would join the crew in “puffing Marlboros all over the place”.
She also says Michael, who died from pancreatic cancer in 1991, “often would have a shot of whatever he was drinking that day” – usually whiskey.
The feud behind the family
On screen, the Ingalls were a tight-knit family who prided themselves on their strong morals, but away from the cameras the actors who played them were far from bonded.
Almost 40 years after the show ended, Karen Grassle, who played matriarch Caroline, aka “Ma”, penned a memoir that detailed the “up and down” relationship she had with her co-star Michael.
After trying – and failing – to block Karen’s efforts to get a pay rise, she says Michael became “moody” around her, but the “worst of it” was his crude comments during their more intimate scenes.
“He began to tell filthy jokes while we were sitting there in that bed and I had nowhere to go,” Karen says.
“It was so humiliating.”
The stars’ private battles
The actress, whose father died of alcoholism, was one of several of the show’s stars who shared struggles with addiction. Karen, now 84, recalled having a glass of wine at a luncheon she put on for her co-stars in 1977 that made her aware she had a problem.
“After we went back to work, I couldn’t stop thinking about that bottle of wine,” she says, adding that she became sober soon after.
Melissa Gilbert was just nine when she landed the part of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the character based on the author of the semi-autobiographical Little House books. Like many child stars before and after her, Melissa began dabbling in drugs and alcohol when she was a teenager.
By her late thirties, she had developed a heavy dependence on prescription pills and was drinking two bottles of wine a night.
“I don’t know if I rebelled so much as tested the waters – swam against the waters,” Melissa, 62, says of her wild behaviour.
“I certainly drank the waters.”
Jason’s candid confession
Although he didn’t join the show until season seven in 1981, Jason Bateman’s first major acting gig was as orphan James Cooper. He was only 12 at the time and it kickstarted his successful career as a child star, but it also paved the way to excess money, hedonistic partying and substance abuse through his twenties.
“I was living at a time without social media and camera phones so I got away with a lot, but it was definitely close a few times,” recalls Jason, 57, adding that he’s now 25 years sober and trying to “catch up” on the years he lost.
Melissa turned her life around and remained closely tied to the Prairie legacy, co-founding lifestyle brand Modern Prairie, promoting wares such as wood figurines of her character.
A crisis behind the scenes
But scandal rocked her world in February this year when authorities charged her husband, Timothy Busfield, with child sexual abuse. The actor, 69, has denied the claims involving two young boys who appeared on a series he directed and acted in, but he has expressed fears his wife’s career will suffer.
Melissa has defended Timothy, calling the ordeal “the most traumatising experience of our lives”.
She says, “Our life as we knew it is done. We are grieving what we had. Believe me, if I thought for a second that Tim Busfield hurt a child, he’d have a lot more to worry about than prison.”
The hunk bringing it to a new generation
Despite playing a character from southwestern Minnesota in Netflix’s new Little House series, the handsome lead actor hails from Down Under!
Sydney actor Luke Bracey steps into the hard-working boots of Pa, the devoted, fiddle-playing family man made famous by the late Michael. Luke, 37, is the first to admit that landing the iconic role was a fluke after he “took a stab in the dark” with the character.
“I hadn’t seen the show,” he says.
“It wasn’t a part of my upbringing. I found the audition quite difficult. I didn’t have any context of the tone of the show.”
But showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine saw the warm Pa-like qualities in Luke early on, saying, “He has a real ease with all sorts of different people.”
